No surprises expected here as the BJP has the requisite assembly seats to make it smooth sailing for its contenders. The disappointment for the BJP, however, is that even after increasing its tally in the upper house by about a dozen seats after the elections-from the 58 it now has-a majority will still elude the party. But you can't win them all, can you?

POLL SOPS

Raje's U-turn

Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje finally withdrew a bill barring the media from naming public servants before their prosecution had been sanctioned. She claimed her record on press freedom and acting against the corrupt was impeccable. Call it making a virtue of necessity.

Jaya He!

It was SP leader Kiranmoy Nanda who sounded out Mamata Banerjee about a Rajya Sabha nomination for Jaya Bachchan. Given the Trinamool Congress's four slots and Didi's equation with the Bachchans, it could all end like a Bollywood family drama. Unless Didi has other plans.

Over the top

A video loop of PM Modi at a recent investment summit in Mumbai set off nudges and winks. The video screen was placed atop a bank of captions-'foreign, fashion, fabric, fibre, farm'-an all too obvious reference to Modi's forgotten 5F formula for Punjab farmers back in the day.

(With Rohit Parihar, Romita Datta, Kiran D Tare, Amarnath K Menon)

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